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Strawberry Vinegar, of Delicious Flavour

A homemade strawberry vinegar made by steeping strawberries in wine vinegar, then reducing with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Strawberry Vinegar, of Delicious Flavour

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the vinegar

  1. Place the strawberries in a large glass jar or wide-necked bottle.

  2. Pour the vinegar over the strawberries and cover with thick paper.

  3. Let the mixture sit for 3 to 4 days.

  4. Strain the liquid through a jelly bag or cloth without pressing.

  5. Replace the strawberries with an equal weight of fresh strawberries and repeat the process, reducing the amount of strawberries slightly each time.

  6. Drain the liquid.

Make the syrup

  1. Mix it with an equal amount of sugar.

  2. Stir the mixture over low heat until it boils for 5 minutes.

  3. Skim off any foam.

Bottle and store

  1. Pour the vinegar into a clean stone pitcher or large china jugs.

  2. Cover with a cloth until the next day.

  3. Bottle the vinegar in pint or half-pint bottles.

  4. Cork them lightly.

  5. After 4 to 5 days, cork tightly.

  6. Store in a cool, dry place.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ripe strawberries
Provide the fruit flavour and aroma that the vinegar takes up during infusion.
White wine vinegar
Extracts and carries the strawberry flavour and supplies the sharp acidity.
Sugar
Sweetens the vinegar and balances its acidity.

The step that matters

Stirring the sugar mixture over low heat. Heating gently only until the sugar dissolves and the mixture boils briefly keeps the fruit flavour bright. Overheating or boiling too long can darken the syrup and dull the aroma, and skimming the foam keeps the finished vinegar clear.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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